L'art, Lan Lan and L.L. Bean

Hello!

It's been a while since I've updated, and I have so much that I'm splitting it into two entries! There are events from April and the beginning of May that I never blogged about that you need to hear!

Firstly, a while back, CET took us to Beijing's art districts, there are several, but the best and most famous one is called 798. It's an awesome place, just wall to wall galleries that are free to wander in and out of, and on every corner and lamppost is some zany statue or graffiti. I took pictures of some of my favorites:

and the very best:

After coming back to Beijing from Shanghai, it was Qinglan's boyfriend, Dylan's birthday, so the three of us were treated by Qinglan's distant relation, we call him 'crazy uncle George', to go back to 798 and wander. Halfway through the galleries we heard a small squeak coming from an abandoned corner of the alley we were in. Going to investigate, we saw this little face looking up at us from under an old fence:

this poor thing was crying her head off and she was filthy and alone. China has a serious problem with abandoned animals, so you usually just learn to look away. But this was a baby kitten and she was quite loud. there really was no question, we wrapped her up in my sweatshirt, found a box, and took her home to uncle George's house. George and his wife volunteered to keep her, and this little urchin within the course of 30 minutes went from hungry and homeless on the cold streets of Beijing to being the apple of everyone's eye, bathed and fed and living like a spoiled princess. We gave her the official name of 798, in Chinese 'qijiuba', but we all call her Lan Lan. She made a wonderful birthday surprise for Dylan.

last weekend, Qinglan and I were missing Lan Lan and so went back to George's house to visit. We found a fatter, cleaner and wonderfully spoiled little monster named Lan Lan.

I know, who ever though I'd love a cat? But kittens are too cute. So Lan Lan is my baby and I plan on visiting her one last time before I head home.

The day we went to visit George and Lan Lan, George and his wife took us out to lunch at a fancy western mall nearby. To my surprise, look what was there!

It had been my goal to visit the L.L. Bean in Beijing, and I found myself there without even planning it! All excited, I had George take me in, only to find that there really isn't much of a difference from the ones in the States. It was smaller, certainly, and the signs on the walls had English and Chinese, but none of the merchandise had Chinese on it. Oh well, it was still so funny to find myself in L.L. Bean!

George says he really likes L.L.Bean and goes there often, because he likes to travel to Tibet. He says he's been there eight times, and has even been to Everest base camp! Don't worry dad, I put in a good word for you, and George says he has a friend in the Tibetan government, so whenever we want to go, he'll help us.

So that's just to catch up, next up - I conquer the Great Wall of China!

<3 Merl